Abu Qatada loses latest bid for freedom at High Court

The High Court has dismissed an appeal from Abu Qatada against his continued detention by home secretary Theresa May.

Lord Justice Hughes, sitting with Mr Justice Silber, said he was ‘quite satisfied’ with a two-month-old ruling from the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) that releasing the terror suspect during the London 2012 Olympics would be ‘exceptionally problematic’.

Abu Qatada has lost his latest bid for freedom (Picture: PA)

Qatada, 52, has been fighting deportation to Jordan to face a retrial on terror charges for a decade.

Reacting to the court’s decision to reject a judicial review application, the Home Office said: ‘Qatada is a dangerous man and we are pleased the High Court has agreed that he should remain behind bars.’

A spokeswoman said the objective was still to remove Qatada ‘as quickly as possible’.

‘We are confident the assurances we have secured from the Jordanian government will allow us to do that,’ she added.

Edward Fitzgerald QC, for Qatada, had told the High Court the Islamic cleric had been detained for seven years – calling it the ‘longest period of administrative detention, so far as we know, in modern English history’.

But government counsel Robin Tam QC reiterated that Qatada was a ‘truly dangerous individual’.